Hotshot Racing Trophy Guide & Road Map

Hotshot Racing
Hotshot Racing Trophy Guide

Overview

Estimated trophy difficulty: 5/10 (Platinum Difficulty Rating)
Offline trophies: 47 (35, 10, 2)
Online trophies: 4 (3, 1)
Approximate amount of time to Platinum: 15-20 hours (Estimated Time to Platinum)
Minimum number of playthroughs: 32 GPs, 9 online races, and then around 100-150 short races for credits.
Number of missable trophies: 0
Glitched trophies: 0 (Overachiever and Trophy Hunter fixed in patch 1.03)
Does difficulty affect trophies?: Yes, you need to win all 4 GPs on expert difficulty.
Do trophies stack?: N/A
Do cheat codes disable trophies?: No Cheat Codes
Extra Peripherals?: Not required but will make the platinum much easier.

Introduction
Hotshot Racing is a modern twist in the old arcade checkpoint racing genre. You will always be against the clock trying to make it to the next checkpoint on this game trying to earn more time, whilst you now have the added bonus of being able to drift your car round corners like a prime Burnout game. An excellent art style and wonderful control over the vehicles make this a game that all racing fans will want to check out! 3, 2, 1.... GO!

Roadmap
I have split the roadmap up into different modes as this will help you to navigate your way through the game. A key thing to remember is that you can boost any trophies yourself with extra controllers in a private online lobby (you assign extra players on the main menu before you pick online mode). You can also do the standard boosting method with a partner should you not have enough controllers. The guide will advise you to boost for multiple trophies, and you are free to use either method. Boost starts, slipstreaming, drifting, and boosts will all be key whilst playing.

Arcade
Arcade Mode is your standard races against 7 other drivers, and against the clock. You’ll need to hit checkpoints to gain more time as you race around, but as long as you aren’t terrible at the game the checkpoints are very easy to hit. There is nothing difficult in the arcade section so this is a good place to start to get a feel for the game.

Newbie
Competent
Professional
World Class
Hustler
Show Off…
Globetrotter

Cops and Robbers
A fun mode not found in too many games, but most people will be familiar with. One person starts out as a cop, and everyone else starts as robbers. The goal is for the cop to ram the robbers repeatedly until they are out of health, and then they become a cop and chase the other robbers. The cops win by catching all the robbers, and the robbers win by completing the set number of laps for the game. All the trophies can be boosted.

Referral Bonus
Beat the Rap
Dunkin'
Seeing Double
Reverse Psychology

Drive or Explode
Another fun mode, and this one is about speed. You car will increase speed every lap whilst you try to keep your health up. Crashing will lower your health, as will going slower than the set speed (which also increases). The mode is still also a standard race, with first across the finish line being the winner, but you can also get eliminated very easily! All the trophies can be boosted.

Barely Breathing
Precision
The Destroyer
K.O.
Supersonic
Not Your Lucky Day
C4

Time Trial
Standard fare for a racing game, simply set the fastest lap you can. Be aware that one of the trophies is for beating your own personal best time 5 times, so get that out of the way as soon as you start time trial so you don’t end up accidently setting yourself some very hard times to beat!

Stick it to the Dev
Follow the Crowd
Machine in the Ghost
Marking Territory
Practise Makes Perfect

Online
The online for this is a lot of fun, but these trophies are also very easy to boost. This won’t take you long at all.

On Cloud 9
Fishing for Compliments
Carbon Fibre Optic

Expert GPs
Now comes the hard part of the game. I would suggest leaving this until you have a good feel for the game, as these are the hardest trophies. See the trophy guide below for tips on how to win on expert, but be prepared for a battle. If you are good at racing games, this shouldn’t cause you too much trouble, but even racing game veterans will likely need a few attempts at some of these GPs. Fortunately the game doesn’t often pick one AI to be your main opponent who will always be 1st or 2nd, so this will give you some slight breathing room.

Follow Your Dreams
Gentrified
Daredevil
Artiste
Speedster
Raving
Family Man
Not a Robot
Hotshot

Misc
You will likely earn most of these miscellaneous trophies without even trying, so I wouldn’t focus on these until you have done everything else. These are all very easy to earn if you go out of your way to focus on them.

Catch my Drift
BWM Driver
Grafting hard
Pacifist
Serial Sprinter
Redemption Arc
Speedy Exit
Phew!
Destruction Level 99
The Peacock
Wheeler Dealer
Self Reflection

Collectibles
There are a lot of collectibles that you need to unlock in this game, but they come just from racing as you normally would anyway. No need to focus on this until you have done everything else as you will be a good portion of the way through this just by doing the other trophies. One of the tasks is to win a GP in every single car. You can do this on normal, and whilst doing that you will also be completing individual racing tasks for each car. These trophies were both glitched and unobtainable but were fixed in patch 1.03.

Overachiever
Trophy Hunter

Hotshot Swot!

[PST would like to thank staytrue1985 for this roadmap]

Hotshot Swot!

Unlock every trophy.
Earn all other trophies to earn yourself a shiny platinum.
Follow Your Dreams

Achieve 1st place as Alexa in any Grand Prix on Expert.
Each Grand Prix consists of 4 races. You cannot restart a race as that just restarts the GP, and you cannot quit out of the GP and resume at a later time as that just ends the GP. You have to do all 4 races in one sitting. Each GP takes about 10 minutes though, but they are hard. I used the Acceleration car for every single racer as this was the vehicle I got on with best. You can do any GP you want for the trophy.

Using the Acceleration class I would use slipstream as much as possible to keep with the leaders without needing to use all my boost, and also build boost via slipstream. I found the best tactic was to try and save as much boost as possible for the second half of the final lap so you can power away from everyone. See the video below if you want an example:
Gentrified

Achieve 1st place as Aston in any Grand Prix on Expert.
See Follow Your Dreams.
Daredevil

Achieve 1st place as Xing in any Grand Prix on Expert.
See Follow Your Dreams.
Artiste

Achieve 1st place as Keiko in any Grand Prix on Expert.
See Follow Your Dreams.
Speedster

Achieve 1st place as Marcus in any Grand Prix on Expert.
See Follow Your Dreams.
Raving

Achieve 1st place as Viktor in any Grand Prix on Expert.
See Follow Your Dreams.
Family Man

Achieve 1st place as Mike in any Grand Prix on Expert.
See Follow Your Dreams.
Not a Robot

Achieve 1st place as Toshiro in any Grand Prix on Expert.
See Follow Your Dreams.
Hotshot

Come 1st in every GP as any character on Expert.
See Follow Your Dreams for tips on winning the GP. You have to win all 4 GPs. I constantly struggled with the tight hairpin on the Down Town course in GP4, but as long as you win the other 3 races in the GP then you should still be able to get the victory. You can each GP with a different racer and it still counts, so you can tie that in with the trophies for winning an expert GP with each character.
Newbie

Come 1st in an arcade race.
See World Class.
Competent

Come 1st in 4 arcade races on different tracks.
See World Class.
Professional

Come 1st in 8 arcade races on different tracks.
See World Class.
World Class

Come 1st in 16 arcade races on different tracks.
At the time of release there were 16 different tracks on the game, so you need to win a race on each of them. You can win them all on Normal difficulty.
Hustler

Come 1st in an Arcade Race after dropping to 8th place from 1st place.
(1)
At lot easier than this might seem because with a good boost start you can get to first place by at the 1st corner, and then drop down to 8th whilst the pack is still together. From there get yourself back to 1st and go and win the race. This can be done on Normal difficulty.
Show Off…

Reverse across the finish line and take 1st place in an arcade race.
You can boost this yourself. Log in with a second controller. Go to online and then host game. Set the max number of racers to 2 and the number of AI racers to zero. Complete the race and reverse over the finish line. It doesn’t matter if Player 2 gets eliminated.
Globetrotter

Finish an arcade race on every track.
See World Class.
Referral Bonus

(Cops only) Convert 3 Robbers into Cops in a Cops & Robbers race.
You can boost this yourself. Log in with 3 extra controllers. Go to online and then host game. Set the max number of racers to 4 and the number of AI racers to zero. Once on the start match screen press to move over to the players section, and from there press or and you will see the ? beside the player name change to a cop or robber icon. As the cop car, quickly crash the 3 robbers into the walls using your extra controllers and lower their health as much as possible before leaving them to idle. You must then quickly smash into them in the cop car and convert them into cops. The time is tight so this might take you a few tries.
Beat the Rap

(Robbers only) Complete a race of Cops & Robbers without being converted into a Cop.
You can boost this yourself. Log in with a second controller. Go to online and then host game. Set the max number of racers to 2 and the number of AI racers to zero. Once you are the Robber, simply leave the cop car to idle whilst you speed around and finish your laps. This is relatively straightforward so you might get this just by playing the mode a couple of times.
Dunkin'

(Robbers Only) Perform a donut in a race and achieve the highest score.
(1)
You can boost this yourself. Log in with 2 extra controllers. Go to online and then host game. Set the max number of racers to 3 and the number of AI racers to zero. Once on the start match screen press to move over to the players section, and from there press or and you will see the ? beside the player name change to a cop or robber icon. When the race starts, find yourself a bit of space and then whilst driving along slowly (but not too slow) do a donut by pressing brake and accelerate repeatedly and quickly. I have found this works by alternating brake and accelerate and doing them at the same time, so you just need to find what works for you. Once you have done a donut, drive alone to the next checkpoint to increase your cash and make sure that you are the winning robber.
Seeing Double

(Cops Only) Convert 2 Robbers within a second of eachother
See Referral Bonus. Whilst setting yourself up for the Referral Bonus trophy you will have a great opportunity to convert 2 robbers into cops in quick succession.
Catch my Drift

Build a full boost bar segment from one drift.
This will likely come naturally while you are playing the game seeing you need to be good at drifting to make progress. If you are struggling just pick a drift car, get your speed up, and attack a long sweeping corner. You can also transition one drift into another and as long as your drift continues then your boost streak will continue as well.
Reverse Psychology

(Cops only) Convert a Robber by colliding whilst driving in the wrong direction.
You can boost this yourself. Log in with a second controller. Go to online and then host game. Set the max number of racers to 2 and the number of AI racers to zero. Once on the start match screen press to move over to the players section, and from there press or and you will see the ? beside the player name change to a cop or robber icon. As the cop car the drive past the robber, turn around so you are driving the wrong way, and smash into the robber head on. Do this repeatedly until you convert the robber’s car.
Barely Breathing

Drive or Explode: Finish a race on fire.
In Drive Or Explode your car will set in fire if your health drops to 25%. The easiest way to do this is race as normal and when you get to the finish line on the final lap simply crash your car into the wall until your health is below 25% and your car is on fire, and then cross the line. You may want to boost this with a second controller in an online race as this means you can have zero opponents getting in your way.
Precision

Drive or Explode: Finish a lap without taking any damage. (Restored health is irrelevant.)
(1)
You can make this very easy by boosting this yourself. Log in with a second controller. Go to online and then host game. Set the max number of racers to 2 and the number of AI racers to zero. Set the difficulty to normal to keep the car as slow as possible. Pick an easy course such as Castle Funfair and then race a full lap with no opponents getting in your way.
The Destroyer

Drive or Explode: Cause 3 vehicles to explode within 10 seconds of hitting them.
(1)
You can boost this yourself. Log in with 3 extra controllers. Go to online and then host game. Set the max number of racers to 4 and the number of AI racers to zero. Start the race then quickly crash the 3 opponents into the walls using your extra controllers and lower their health to around 40 before leaving them to idle. You must then quickly smash into them with your car and blow them up. The time is tight so this might take you a few tries.

NB - I also received a tip about this from TheMightyImp2 about how he earned this trophy.

Originally Posted by TheMightyImp2

"I just made an idiot proof method of getting Destroyer you may want to add to your guide.

Start a 4p local race on marina or whatever. Rubber band players 2 3 and 4 accelerator down. They all crash into a corner and run themselves to death. Be sure to get a hit on at least one of the other cars with player 1. As long as you get one hit on them it should count."
K.O.

In Drive or Explode, crash into another racer causing them to explode.
You can make this very easy by boosting this yourself. Log in with a second controller. Go to online and then host game. Set the max number of racers to 2 and the number of AI racers to zero. With your second player reduce their health down to much less than the health of your main car by smashing it into the walls. Switch back to your main controller and when the health of player 2 is below 10% ram into it with your main car and this should make them explode.
Supersonic

Cross the finish line on Drive or Explode at 300mph.
(1)
You can make this very easy by boosting this yourself. Log in with a second controller. Go to online and then host game. Set the max number of racers to 2 and the number of AI racers to zero. Set the difficulty to expert as you want the car to be as fast as possible, and it is fastest on expert. Set the number of laps to 5 and pick an easy course such as Castle Funfair. Your top speed will start relatively slowly and will increase every lap and on the 5th lap your top speed will be about 270mph. Make sure you keep a boost in reserve and if you approach the finish line on your final lap at top speed you can use a boost and push your speed up well past 300mph.
Not Your Lucky Day

In Drive or Explode, explode before reaching the 1st checkpoint.
Start a game of Drive or Explode and just stay still until your car explodes. Very easy trophy.
C4

Start the explosion timer 4 times in Drive or Explode.
The description isn’t the clearest, but this means 4 times in the SAME race. To start the explosion timer you need to have an active opponent in Drive or Explode. The first person past each checkpoint starts the explosion timer for all other opponents, and it is turned off for them when they pass the same checkpoint. This can be boosted but you need your opponent to stay active until you hit 4 checkpoint gates. You can do this in Arcade mode as well, but you need to make sure you stay ahead of all opponents, which is easy enough to do on Normal difficulty.
Stick it to the Dev

Beat a default ghost time in Time Trial.
In Time Trial mode every track (and mirrored track) has a time set by one of the game devs. This will be the only time showing when you first select a track. You can do this on any track that you wish, but this is what I found easiest:

Track: Mountain > Castle Funfair
Driver: Keiko
Car: Super F-90
Follow the Crowd

Beat a downloaded ghost time in Time Trial.
(1)
Select Time Trial from the main menu. When selecting a track press triangle to show the global times, and then pick the slowest time possible and beat it.
Machine in the Ghost

Drive inside a ghost in Time Trial for 5 seconds.
This is very easy as you can set your own time trial ghost and then use that one to do this trophy. Go into Time Trial and select any track. When you start simply park up and wait for 20 seconds, and then go and complete your lap. Once you have completed your lap drop out of the game so that your time saves, and then from the main menu go back into Time Trial, select the same track, and then select your own ghost to race against. When you start now you should be able to park up inside your ghost that you just set and this will give you an easy 5 seconds inside a ghost.
Marking Territory

Set a personal best time on every track. (No mirrored track required.)
At release, there were 16 tracks on the game. Simply complete a lap in time trial on every track and this will set your personal best for each one. It doesn’t matter how fast or slow your lap is.
Practise Makes Perfect

Beat 5 personal bests on any track.
Very easy as long as you don’t set yourself ridiculous times on every track! Easiest way is to just set a really slow time on a track, and then do another lap and beat it by a few seconds, and do it again and again and again. Once you have beat your personal best 5 times the trophy will pop. It can be all 5 on one track, or on 5 different tracks.
BWM Driver

Slipstream behind a player for 5 seconds.
This should come naturally as you are doing the expert GPs as you will struggle to get anywhere with them without taking full advantage of slipstreams. This can also be boosted, so if you really struggle you can get someone to drive nice and steady infront of you so you can follow the for 5 seconds.
Grafting hard

Build your boost meter to full from empty twice in a race.
To make this easy you can do an arcade race on normal difficulty and set the race to 7 laps. That will give you all the time you need to fully charge all 4 sections of your boost meter, use them, and then fully charge it again. Just drift and slipstream as much as you can.
Pacifist

Complete a race without colliding with another racer.
You can make this very easy by boosting this yourself. Log in with a second controller. Go to online and then host game. Set the max number of racers to 2 and the number of AI racers to zero. Simply complete the race without crashing into your opponent.
Serial Sprinter

Perform 10 boosts in a race.
This should come naturally whilst trying to get the expert GP trophies. If for some reason it does not, simply do a 7 lap race and keep drifting and then boosting.
Redemption Arc

Fail a start line boost and take 1st place in arcade mode.
(1)
You can boost this yourself. Log in with a second controller. Go to online and then host game. Set the max number of racers to 2 and the number of AI racers to zero. Fail your boost at the start by holding your accelerator down until your meter is in the red zone. Your car will splutter as the race starts. Complete the race and win.
Speedy Exit

Exit a Drift with a Boost.
This will come naturally whilst you are playing the game, but if it doesn’t, simply press boost whilst you are coming to the end of a drift and the trophy will pop.
Phew!

Come 1st and beat 2nd place by 1 second.
This will come naturally as the catch-up logic on this game is very strong. You won’t be able to get away and have a big lead against the AI. I have won countless races against the AI by 0.1 second.
Destruction Level 99

Finish a race with 20 track destructibles destroyed.
You can boost this yourself. Log in with a second controller. Go to online and then host game. Select a game of Cops and Robbers as that mode will have destructibles on the track. Set the max number of racers to 2 and the number of AI racers to zero. Drive round on your own and knock over 20 destructibles. The trophy will not pop until after the race has finished.
Overachiever

Unlock all customisation options.
(1)
There are 23 customisation items you can unlock for each of the 8 cars, and then a further 19 customisation options that are shared by all cars, meaning you need to unlock 203 items. They are all unlocked by doing tasks that you would be doing during normal racing anyway. Each bobblehead requires you to win a GP with the 4 cars of each character, so you will be doing a minimum of 4 races for that first anyway. Get the GPs out of the way and then see what you have left remaining. You can select each item and it will tell you what you need to do to unlock it. This trophy was glitched on the initial base game, but was fixed with patch 1.03.
Trophy Hunter

Purchase all customisation options.
Here is a list of what you have to unlock for EACH car, which should cost you $101,000 per car. There are 32 cars in the game, which totals $3,232,000 credits for all car upgrades.

Palette: 2 x $8000
Skin: 2 x $8000
Bonnet: 1 x $3000
Front Bumper: 1 x $3000
Rear Bumper 1 x $3000
Wheels: 3 x $2000
Side Skirt: 2 x $2000
Boot: 1 x $3000
Spoiler: 2 x $8000
Exhaust: 1 x $3000
Hood Blower: 2 x $8000
Headlights: 1 x $3000
Rear Lights: 1 x $3000
Steering Wheel: 2 x $2000
Dashboard: 1 x $2000

There are also 10 accessories and 9 bobbleheads to unlock, but these are shared across all cars. These will set you back $56,000, and each driver also has 2 extra race suits that you can unlock, and these cost $6000 for the pair, so $48,000 for all 16.

Accessories: 10 x $2000
Bobbleheads: 9 x $4000
Palettes Specials: 10 x $8000
Driver racing suit 2: 8 x $2000
Driver racing suit 3: 8 x $4000

This gives you a grand total of $3,416,000 credits. You earn credits very easily in this game, but if you want to earn them as quickly as possible you can self-boost an online race of Drive Or Explode as a win gives you $20,000, set it to 1 lap, and win easily and repeatedly. You don't even need to finish the event, just let both cars explode but make sure your car is ahead of the second car. This trophy was glitched on the initial base game, but was fixed with patch 1.03.
On Cloud 9

Come 1st in 9 online races (any game mode)
(2)
You can boost this yourself. Log in with a second controller. Go to online and then host game. Select Arcade as the game mode as this is the quickest, and then set it to 1 lap. Set the max number of racers to 2 and the number of AI racers to zero. Go and win the race whilst your opponent sits idle. It does not matter if your opponent gets eliminated.
The Peacock

Customise every aspect of a vehicle and complete a race with it.
There are 17 options you can customise for a car. Simply select a different option other than default for each one. Be aware that palette also counts as one of these options. You unlock the option to buy each upgrade by performing certain tasks (each one is listed), and you will have plenty of cash as money is really easy to earn in this game.
Fishing for Compliments

Play an Online race with a customised vehicle.
Select Raceshop from the main menu and customise anything in your vehicle. You only need to customise one thing on your vehicle. I simply changed my exhaust and then did an online race.
Wheeler Dealer

Complete a race in every vehicle.
There are 8 racers, and they have 4 cars each, so you have to complete a race with all 32 cars. If you are unsure if you have used a specific car or not you can go into the car customisation page and see the challenges for each car. If a car has all zeros then you haven’t used that car.
Self Reflection

Complete a race on a mirrored track.
Select Single Race and select any mode you wish. When selecting track press square and it will switch to the mirror version of that track. Complete a race on that track.
Carbon Fibre Optic

Play an Online race.
Select online mode and compete in a race. Doesn’t matter what type of event and doesn’t matter if you get eliminated. Just play!